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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Loneliness has been linked to depression and other health problems. Now, a study says it can also spread. A friend of a lonely person was fifty-two percent more likely to develop feelings of loneliness. And a friend of that friend was twenty-five percent more likely to do the same.

Earlier findings showed that happiness, obesity and the ability to stop smoking can also spread like infections within social groups.

The findings all come from a major health study in the American town of Framingham, Massachusetts.

The study began in nineteen forty-eight to investigate the causes of heart disease.

Since then, more tests have been added, including measures of loneliness and depression.

The new findings involved more than five thousand people in the second generation of the Framingham Heart Study. The researchers examined friendship histories and reports of loneliness. The results established a pattern that spread as people reported fewer close friends.

For example, loneliness can affect relationships between next-door neighbors. The loneliness spreads as neighbors who were close friends now spend less time together. The study also found that loneliness spreads more easily among women than men.

Researchers from the University of Chicago, Harvard and the University of California, San Diego, did the study. The findings appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The average person is said to experience feelings of loneliness about forty-eight days a year.

The study found that having a lonely friend can add about seventeen days. But every additional friend can decrease loneliness by about five percent, or two and a half days.

Lonely people become less and less trusting of others. This makes it more and more difficult for them to make friends — and more likely that society will reject them.

John Cacioppo at the University of Chicago led the study. He says it is important to recognize and deal with loneliness. He says people who have been pushed to the edges of society should receive help to repair their Social Networks.

The aim should be to aggressively create what he calls a “protective barrier” against loneliness.

This barrier, he says, can keep the whole network from coming apart.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report. You can find transcripts and MP3s of all of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also post your comments and read what others are saying. And you can find us on YouTube and Twitter at VOA Learning English.

(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 06Jan2010)

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Peter Schiff is one of the most visible figures in the financial media today. His predictions have been extraordinarily accurate and this has gained him much attention from the media and his peers. He has been quoted in many of the nation’s leading newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Investor’s Business Daily, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, The Miami Herald, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Arizona Republic, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Christian Science Monitor, and appears regularly on CNBC, CNN, Fox News, Fox Business Network, and Bloomberg. In this interview Peter discusses gold, the Indian Central Bank purchase, possible downside in gold, how China will build its gold reserves, the US Dollar, unemployment, tent cities, the economy, future jobs, real estate, government attempt to prevent housing from correcting, government becoming a landlord, the FHA, social security and more.

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OVER 100 MORE examples of Fox News Bias at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A3BD2524FE99BD4D

If you thought Fox News would try to be more accurate in its business programming where misreporting is more likely to have financial consequences, you’ll be disappointed by the false Republican talking point masquerading as news information I heard from Jonathan Hoenig, an Ayn Rand follower and author of “Greed is Good: The Capitalist Pig Guide to Investing,” who appeared on the Fox News business program “Cashin’ In” this weekend.

The Fox News clips in this video come from the program “Cashin’ In” broadcast on March 13, 2010 (which I have not been able to find available online).

The audio clip of Eric Westervelt’s National Public Radio story titled “Greek Workers Strike Over Austerity Plan” comes from the NPR webpage you can find at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124559264

And, finally, the Social Security OASDI information about the limits on the amount of earnings subject to taxation for a given year that I show in this video comes from the webpage at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/COLA/cbb.html

Duration : 0:3:35

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Can you really obtain a free of charge credit report without credit cards? The response for this is actually yes due to the fact you no longer need to use credit cards to be able to set up any credit history.

Now, some may question just how this may be. The answer is instead simple: whenever you are required to create installments you can be working on establishing a new credit history.

That is why it is necessary to pay your current energy expenses on time along with some other debts you may owe. However, regardless of your present financing as well as credit circumstance, it is important to understand the procedure pertaining to acquiring any free credit report without a credit card.

It is important to take note which all people have the right under what the law states with a free of charge credit file under the law because of The Fair Credit rating Act (FCRA).

Specifically, it is possible to get a free credit report without credit cards from your three best credit rating firms which are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

These 3 companies should present you with one free of charge copy of your respective credit card per your request every Twelve months. If you need to view a copy of your credit file from your same company more often than once each year, you’ll be required to pay some sort of minimal charge in order to acquire this.

Many may wonder what’s the importance of acquiring a free of charge credit score without credit cards? There are numerous benefits to obtaining this type of report.

One of the most important factors is to make sure the information existing within the card is accurate. Sometimes, any mistakes could turn up and when you find that, it will turn into necessary in order to get the steps needed to fix ones credit.

Also, within the extreme situation of becoming a victim of identity scam, virtually any unauthorized or made up details associated with credit issues would be reflected on the report.

Obtaining such info would then allow you to take the necessary action to deal with the problem. Yes, there are many advantages for you to acquiring a free of charge credit report without having credit cards. That’s the reason the method is really essential.

Angela Johnson comes from CA. She has, combined, over 3 years of experience in Credit Card. You may want to check out her other guide on union plus credit card tips and capitol one credit card guide.